November 29, 2015

Tefillah is a heavily-discussed topic at GOA, with many student holding varied and strong opinions on the matter.

There is a large sect of students within the student body that are highly critical of the period and gener­ally hold negative views on the subject. Many believe that this is due to the current system in which students in younger grades are influenced by upperclassmen, many of whom bear strong opinions on the subject.

“When incoming freshman first join the high school in prayer, it is not difficult for them to look around and see bored faces, disrespectful students and aggravated teachers threatening detention,” sophomore Yael Lieb­man said.

Liebman continued with the theory that the preex­isting negative mood does not exactly create the best atmosphere to develop a fondness, or at least a toler­ance, for this expression of collective worship. Un­fortunately, it seems as though as the year progresses, Liebman’s perceived negativity of the majority of the upperclassmen rubs off on the newcomers.

Rabbi Gindea, the coordinator for Tefillah, ac­knowledged this problem and has attempted fix the perpetual cycle that has been an ongoing issue for many years. Despite there not seeming to be any pres­ent solutions to the problem of negative response, the administration has put forth many new engaging mea­sures in an attempt to find a solution.

AsGoldaOchhasalwaysbeenanenvironmentopen to criticismand new ideas, the communityshouldattempttocometogetherasawholeanden-gagein aproductiveandmeaningfulconversationregardingtheTefillah systemandhowtobetterim-